Re: Unanswered Questions that have been bugging me

Hi everyone,
This is my first time creating my own thread, might as well start in year 12.
I have a few unanswered questions that i would love answered.

How much effect does the school you go to have on your atar?

How do you keep youself motivated through year 12? I am having a hard time keeping focus sometimes and i feel like just giving up. Sometimes its only the stress of failing that gets me through.

How beneficial is it to follow a timetable rather than making a list of what to do?

Would you recommend to make my own summaries, use someone elses or mixture of both?

I have been contemplating which uni is the best for business related degrees, anyone know which are the best for that?
I heard UNSW and Macquarie University are pretty good.

Going off the last question, which degree would be the best for accounting?
I'm aiming to be a charted accountant

I've also been going back and forth on if I should drop a subject.
I currently do:

Advanced English

Ext 1 Math

Physics

Chemistry

Economics

Engineering Studies

I am having a difficult time on whether I should drop engineering or economics. I ranked equal in both in the prelims.

Thanks in Advance.

Hello! I'm sorry that I'm not able to answer all your questions, but I can answer a couple!

1) The school you go to doesn't affect your atar at all. School rankings are simply an indicator as to which schools have a high number of high scoring students. Obviously the high ranking schools wouldn't change much because they're primarily selective schools (james ruse, sydney boys/girls, etc), but you'll notice below 150 is quite fluid. A school in my area dropped almost 100 places in the past year, whereas mine jumped a good 50, so don't worry about school rankings, they won't affect your atar
2) I can't answer that too well seeing as I'm in the same position as you, but I've found it very helpful to drink lots of water whist studying, do some stretches, take frequent breaks and move around. I'd like to emphasise the last point because whenever I have marathon studying/homework sessions on the weekend (3-5 hours without moving) I lose focus very quickly. Take breaks every 30min-1hr and just move around a bit. Doing a sport helps a lot too, since you're using up a lot of energy.
4) Honestly its different for everyone, but I prefer writing my own summaries simply because it helps to stick in my head better. If I'm simply reading another's notes it disappears from my memory very quickly, whereas if I'm handwriting my own notes it helps a lot more. Also handwriting your own notes means you can make them pretty, which is what I usually do haha

As for which subject you should drop, I'd say wait until your first lot of assessments and see which subject you do best in. Also, if you're looking to do a business-related degree then keeping economics would probably help you out a lot more than engineering. In saying that, if you're doing better in engineering or you simply enjoy it a lot more I'd say keep that.

Re: Unanswered Questions that have been bugging me

How much effect does the school you go to have on your atar?
Not much, I personally went to a rank 150 school and got 99.20. It really depends on how much motivation and effort you put in year 12.

How do you keep youself motivated through year 12? I am having a hard time keeping focus sometimes and i feel like just giving up. Sometimes its only the stress of failing that gets me through.
Instead of a failing mindset, think about an achieving/growth mindset, think about what you can learn, how much you can improve and you will performing much better.

How beneficial is it to follow a timetable rather than making a list of what to do?
It really depends on what you prefer and what works for you, I think both works at different times, I personally found timetables to be too rigid and to do list to be more flexible
Would you recommend to make my own summaries, use someone elses or mixture of both?
Again depends on how good and how efficient you are making summaries, and whether you learn from the process of making summaries. I would say if you are good with summaries, definitely make your own, and you are free to use someone elses as a guidance to structure your own notes.

I have been contemplating which uni is the best for business related degrees, anyone know which are the best for that?
I heard UNSW and Macquarie University are pretty good.
I will be biased, I think UNSW has one of the best business schools, so would recommend it, but really depends on travel/uni vibe etc.

Going off the last question, which degree would be the best for accounting?
I'm aiming to be a charted accountant

I would say commerce majoring in accounting, whether in a combined degree or not.

I've also been going back and forth on if I should drop a subject.
I currently do:
Advanced English
Ext 1 Math
Physics
Chemistry
Economics
Engineering Studies

Without knowing how you feel about these subjects, difficult to advise you to drop a subject. Choose the subject that is the most time consuming and that you are the least interested in or are getting the worse marks in if you feel confident that with less subjects, you will be able to spend more time studying on each subject and get better results. Otherwise I would advise keeping those subjects.

How do you keep youself motivated through year 12? I am having a hard time keeping focus sometimes and i feel like just giving up. Sometimes its only the stress of failing that gets me through.

It is important to choose subjects that you like and that you are likely going to do well in. Forget about scaling or how others perceive your subject selection. But since you don't have much choice now, you should try to find methods of learning that favour your education. For example, you could watch relevant documentaries or listen to podcasts. Do a bit of work on one subject then move to another. Start doing past paper questions - that is one of the end goals, so bring it forward so the end is clearer. Doesn't matter if you haven't finished a unit - your education doesn't have to wait on your teacher to tell you what to do.

Originally Posted by hsay25

How beneficial is it to follow a timetable rather than making a list of what to do?

Depends on what works for you.

Originally Posted by hsay25

Would you recommend to make my own summaries, use someone elses or mixture of both?

Depends on what works for you.

Originally Posted by hsay25

I have been contemplating which uni is the best for business related degrees, anyone know which are the best for that?
I heard UNSW and Macquarie University are pretty good.

Many of the brightest students go to UNSW - they can't all be wrong with their decision.

Originally Posted by hsay25

Going off the last question, which degree would be the best for accounting?
I'm aiming to be a charted accountant

An accounting degree. Look up what it takes to become a chartered accountant and it will tell you the appropriate education pathways.

Originally Posted by hsay25

I've also been going back and forth on if I should drop a subject.
I currently do:

Advanced English

Ext 1 Math

Physics

Chemistry

Economics

Engineering Studies

I am having a difficult time on whether I should drop engineering or economics. I ranked equal in both in the prelims.

Thanks in Advance.

Drop what you don't like. Neither are really necessary for uni, but there are certainly concepts in Economics that would favour someone aspiring to do a business related degree.

Re: Unanswered Questions that have been bugging me

Hi everyone,
This is my first time creating my own thread, might as well start in year 12.
I have a few unanswered questions that i would love answered.

How much effect does the school you go to have on your atar?

How do you keep youself motivated through year 12? I am having a hard time keeping focus sometimes and i feel like just giving up. Sometimes its only the stress of failing that gets me through.

How beneficial is it to follow a timetable rather than making a list of what to do?

Would you recommend to make my own summaries, use someone elses or mixture of both?

This is some of my personal experience with your questions (you may have a different one).
2. Generally having a clearly defined goal, can be a way to motivate yourself. I believe this is more effective if you're goal is not necessarily to achieve X ATAR, but perhaps X ATAR for Y course (as the drive attached to the course will likely be greater than the drive for the ATAR). Furthermore, you could perhaps see the HSC as the last bit of high school, and wouldn't you like to finish with a BANG? You've done 12 years of school, so now is not the time to give up in your last year where it counts towards your ATAR. Additionally, enjoying your subjects can dramatically improve your motivation in that subject. This can be difficult to find/cultivate but it is well worth it, and I personally began to like different subjects by understanding why we do it (it's purpose), the use in the real world (practicalities - both for others and how I would use it), and perhaps it's beauty "Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” - Richard Feynman. Finally, I personally found that if I've been working tirelessly and haven't had some sort of break or outlet, I will begin t feel tired, drained and demotivated. Thus, depending on the period when you are feeling demotivated, it could be good to have a break with the purpose of relaxing and having fun.
3. Personally, I used a timetable to structure my study, this generally ensured that I was doing weekly study for each subject and that they had a certain amount of time dedicated to each (rather than overloading one subject - however, some of my subjects did have more allocated time to them, either because I wanted to do well particularly in that subject, enjoyed it, it was more difficult etc.). Though I generally had an idea (or perhaps a mental to do list - and tried to keep a physical one) for each subject, so when I had the time for my study I would try and complete what was on the list. However, the timetable I saw as a "recommendation", if I was struggling with a particular topic in a subject, I would more than happily sacrifice time on other subjects that I wasn't struggling with, else the timetable would become a restrictive device rather than a productive tool.
4. Make your own summaries, however they should be a compilation of others (preferably those who have great notes and generally did well; a good set of notes for science are jazz519 and other great notes can be found by browsing the notes section on the bored of studies forum, briefly looking these seem to be credible notes, helloimyellow). I personally did not necessarily read their notes look away and then write from memory in my own words what they said (some teachers recommended this), but copied an amalgamation of notes and then (as there were of course slight discrepancies in information or wording) I would begin to combine them into one cohesive set of notes. NB: My notes were typed (digital).

Hope that helps (don't forget this was what I found worked for me. You may personally find something that works better for you).

Re: Unanswered Questions that have been bugging me

"I am having a difficult time on whether I should drop engineering or economics. I ranked equal in both in the prelims."

If you want to be a charted accountant, maybe you should drop engineering as it will have relevance in your job , but then again its your choice, choose the subject you love and keep it, if you love both why not keep all.